Wireshark · Ethereal-dev: Re: GPL and Use of Ethereal (Was: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Windows Unicode build)

[Richard Sharpe <rsharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004, Richard Urwin wrote:

> On Thursday 23 Sep 2004 9:28 pm, ronnie sahlberg wrote:
> > It doesnt matter.
> >
> > Use of ethereal in that way is a violation of GPL anf a copyright
> > violation. The GPL is very clear in that area.
>
> We need to get clear on this issue. If we are not taking the matter
> further with Clearsight, and as far as I have heard we are not, then we
> can't really jump on people who do the same thing, using the same code.

That is true ...

> I'm not very happy about it either, but we have to be consistent. Either
> the Clearsight solution is good enough or it isn't.

There seems to be a trend for companies that need to squeeze a few more
dollars out of their increasingly irrelevant products (harsh
characterization, I know) to want to make use of, at no cost, the hard
work of other people.

Perhaps the way to deal with that is to implement, in Ethereal, or
OSS-based extensions, features that would make Ethereal just as useful ...

Of course, another way to look at the issue is that these companies have
agreed that they cannot compete with Ethereal and the community.

Regards
-----
Richard Sharpe, rsharpe[at]richardsharpe.com, rsharpe[at]samba.org,
sharpe[at]ethereal.com, http://www.richardsharpe.com